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15 Best Web Browsers For MacBook | Lightweight, Fast & Privacy-Oriented (2023)

When choosing a web browser for Mac, people often consider factors like – Security, Speed, Compatibility, Customization & Privacy. If you’re a long-time Mac user, you might find yourself using Safari. As there’s no denying that it offers amazing performance, great integration with iCloud, and a huge library of extensions that allows users to expand its capabilities. But is it still the best Mac browser? 

Well, if you don’t want to stick with your default browser anymore and want to enjoy a more personalized and faster experience. We have curated a list of the most popular browsers for Mac in 2023! 

How We’ve Selected These Best Mac Web Browsers?

We’ve compared these Internet browsers across various aspects, ranging from user experience to security, speed, and customizability. We tried them on the latest macOS Ventura, Monterey, Big Sur, and some older popular versions like macOS Catalina, Mojave & High Sierra. This helps us to check the compatibility score, technical support they offer, and overall ease of using the browser. 

It took us more than 48 hours to research these “search engines” & here we’re ready to make several top recommendations! 

15 Best Internet Browsers For Mac To Use In 2023

To provide you fastest browsing experience, here is the list of the top web browsers for macOS Ventura and other popular versions:

1. Google Chrome

 

One of the most popular browsers, widely used on Windows, Google Chrome is a good option for a Fastest browser. It is fast, secure and free, and it runs on multiple platforms. It’s clutter free interface makes it easy to use.

 Features of Google Chrome:

Pros

PROS: 
  • Easy to use. 
  • Fast & secure browsing experience. 
  • Inbuilt Incognito mode for private surfing. 
  • Tons of extensions are supported. 

Cons

Cons:

  • Kills the battery (if you are running a portable Mac) and hogs the RAM.
  • If you accidentally close the browser, Chrome will close all the tabs opened without warning.

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2. Brave Browser:

A new and emerging browser for Mac, Brave is secure, private and fast. Brave is open source and focuses on your privacy. Brave is a lightweight Mac browser.

Features of Brave:

Pros

PROS: 
  • Minimalist user interface. 
  • Promote anonymity by blocking web trackers. 
  • Extremely light on system resources. 
  • Various test shows Brave loads pages roughly twice as fast as Chrome. 

Cons

CONS: 

  • Lacks extensions & add-ons. 

3. Microsoft Edge

 

Edge browser isn’t a new name anymore, and it has gained popularity over time. With special features such as Immersive Reader, one can enjoy reading articles and ebooks on the web browser on Mac.

Features of Microsoft Edge –

Pros

PROS: 

  • Sizeable library of browser extensions. 
  • Blocks all trackers from all websites. 
  • Immersive Reader for a straightforward reading experience. 
  • In-built PDF reader. 

Cons

Cons: 

  • Uses Microsoft Bing as a default search engine.

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Must Read: Photoshop Scratch Disk Full – Guide on How To Fix

4. Mozilla Firefox

With inbuilt privacy, Mozilla is one of the trusted and best browsers for Mac. It has features that protect you from phishing schemes, viruses and more.

Features of Mozilla Firefox:

Pros

PROS: 
  • Blocks crypto mining scripts. 
  • Prevent social trackers. 
  • Text to speech & reader mode. 
  • In-built screenshot-capturing tool. 

Cons

Cons:

  • Sometimes, you end up getting an error while opening a website, as Mozilla is not compatible with it.
  • Mozilla Firefox uses more memory than other browsers and has slow startup time.

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5. Opera

 

 

An older name, Opera is one of the best browsers for Mac in 2023 as it is fast and smooth. It is famous to access faster speed with low-speed connection based on the server size compression technique.

 Features of Opera:

Pros

PROS: 
  • Free virtual private network
  • Built-in access to social media apps. 
  • Turbo mode to boost Internet speed.
  • Battery Saver mode.

Cons

Cons:

  • To properly operate the browser, one needs to strictly adhere to coding.
  • The extensions built into Opera are not always easy to find.

6. Yandex

With the look and feel of Microsoft’s Edge browser, Yandex is one of the best browsers for Mac in 2019.
Features Of Yandex:

Pros

PROS: 
  • Wonderful user interface. 
  • In-built translator.
  • Save websites in the Favorites list.  
  • Good customization options available. 

Cons

CONS: 

  • Eats up significant system resources. 

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7. Vivaldi

An open source Chromium browser with some similarities to Opera, Vivaldi is one of the best browsers available for Mac.

Features of Vivaldi

Pros

PROS: 
  • A customizable calendar for task management. 
  • Highly customizable user interface. 
  • Bookmark apps are very nice and useful.
  • Various shortcuts & settings are available for power users.

Cons

Cons:

  • Just as Chrome, this browser also hogs up the system resources.
  • There is no way to sync passwords, settings, bookmarks online

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8. Avast Secure Browser

Avast Secure Browser claims to protect everything you do online and strengthen your digital privacy. It uses powerful anti-phishing technology to protect malicious websites & downloads. To add credibility to their claims, the browser has undergone the “Anti-Phishing Protection Test” by AV-Comparatives & it has scored top position in the same.

Features of Avast Secure Browser: 

Pros

PROS: 
  • Large extension store. 
  • Advanced privacy & security settings. 
  • Provides fast speed as compared to other leading browsers. 
  • Play with new themes & color schemes.

Cons

CONS: 

  • Very few personalization options. 
  • You need to pay for certain security features.

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9. Maxthon

One of the best browsers for Mac, Maxthon has a good interface on the home screen of the browser.

Features of Maxthon:

  • One of the best things about Maxthon is that it keeps the PC’s working condition optimized while working on it and doesn’t hog the system’s performance.
  • It boosts up the internet connection to an extent and it tries to open the web page faster.
  • Maxthon is independent of operating systems as well as the device itself as it is cloud based with all OS interlocked to each other.
  • It has a good feature which doesn’t let you fill in the information on websites you visited in the past when you visit it for the next time as it saves the information for you.

Pros

PROS: 
  • Removes ads & shows multi-page articles in one window. 
  • Supports more than 40 languages. 
  • Pre-fills usernames & passwords on favorite websites. 
  • Cross-platform syncing. 

Cons

Cons:

  • It doesn’t offer a wide range of extensions.
  • Maxthon lacks some of the features such as voice interaction commands and open-source development.

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10. Puffin Secure Browser

Puffin Secure Browser is a very good web browser for Mac in terms of safety. It used advanced technology to guard your data and device. The regular malware threats can be averted using this on Mac.

Features of Puffin Secure Browser

Pros

PROS: 
  • User-friendly & secure experience. 
  • Quickly renders the flash content on the server 
  • Does not utilize a lot of tracking cookies. 
  • Cloud-based browser.

Cons

Cons: 

  • Poor cross-device synchronization.
  • Some countries have blocked the web browser. 

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Must Read: How To Analyze Disk Space On Mac

11. DuckDuckGo

Here comes another privacy-oriented Mac web browser to use in 2023 – DuckDuckGo. The application is known for reducing invasive tracking, speeding up your surfing experience, and blocking annoying cookie consent pop-ups. It is consistently scaling up to offer a better browsing experience. 

Features of DuckDuckGo: 

Pros

PROS: 
  • Blocks third-party trackers. 
  • Gives Privacy scores from A to F for each site.
  • Supports light & dark themes. 
  • Automatically redirects users to an encrypted version of the page. 

Cons

CONS: 

  • Lacks personalization.

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12. Torch Browser

Torch Browser is a super-fast and easy-to-use Mac browser that you should try and use in 2023. It offers an excellent surfing experience, all thanks to the in-built media downloading and sharing features. With Torch, you can even download torrents & streaming videos/audio in one click. 

Features of Torch Browser: 

Pros

PROS: 
  • Easy to install & safe to use. 
  • Translate and search text or share links and photos. 
  • Share links & sites on your favorite social media apps with one convenient button. 
  • Download Accelerator to speed up your download process. 

Cons

CONS: 

  • Doesn’t receive constant updates.

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13. SeaMonkey

Web-browser, advanced e-mail, newsgroup, and feed client, IRC chat, and HTML editing made simple, with all these features SeaMonkey deserves to be on the list of best browsers for Mac.

Features of SeaMonkey:

Pros

PROS: 
  • Cookie and popup managers. 
  • Store all your passwords in one place. 
  • Wide range of settings to improve the browsing experience. 
  • Advanced e-mail and newsgroup client.

Cons

Cons:

  • It doesn’t have mouse gestures or voice interaction for multi-modal browsing
  • The browser is not sleek and it can’t be used with ease.

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14. Stainless

Yet another browser, which is counted in the list of fastest browsers for Mac  due to its super light-weightiness and it looks like Google Chrome.

Features of Stainless

Pros

PROS: 
  • Minimalistic & intuitive UI. 
  • It reduces memory usage. 
  • Drag & drop the favicons from websites to a sidebar. 
  • Offers Incognito, Private Browsing, and Single Session Browsing. 

Cons

CONS: 

  • No ability to import existing bookmarks. 

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15. Omni Web

Omni Web is one of the best browsers available for Mac as it is the powerful web browser for Mac.

Features of Omni Web:

Pros

PROS: 
  • Fast & reliable. 
  • Flexible and configurable. 
  • Switch between workspaces. 
  • Automatically saves all your open windows & tabs. 

Cons

Cons:

  • The browser is slow.
  • It hogs the system resources as it uses a large amount of RAM.

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Note: The browser is no longer actively maintained, but for macOS 10.12 (Sierra) and later, try the OmniWeb 6 test builds.

This concludes our list of the best browsers for Mac. these browsers are lightweight and will give you the fastest browsing experience. Which one is your favorite? Let us know in the comments below.

Frequently Asked Questions –

Q1. What browser can be used on a Mac?

Any web browser which is compatible with your macOS can be used on Mac. It is recommended that you check for a safe and reliable browser to keep your device and data safe.

Q2. What is the best search browser for Mac?

Opera is one of the best web browsers for Mac with its minimum time of loading web pages. The user can easily navigate around the web browser to access all of its features.

Q3. What is the best browser for Mac other than Safari?

Opera and Brave are the top-most popular browsers used by Mac users other than the inbuilt Mac browser Safari.

Q4. Is Firefox bad for Mac?

No, Mozilla Firefox is a good browser with multiple features for customizing your browser as per your needs. It has ample privacy features to ensure the safety and security of the user.

Q5. Is it better to use Chrome or Safari on Mac?

Safari is a much favorable browser for Mac as it comes inbuilt with the Mac and also gives you personal experience. Google Chrome is much better as an independent browser for the devices.

Conclusion-

This concludes our list of the best browsers for Mac. These browsers are lightweight and will give you the fastest browsing experience. Which one is your favorite? Let us know in the comments below.

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